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Child Support CARE Call Center: Six million customers served

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Library: News Release

For Media Inquiries, Contact:
Jeff Wagner, OCSS Center for Communications
Phone:
(405) 514-1233
email: Jeff.Wagner@OKDHS.org

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL – CARE, the call center for Oklahoma Child Support Services (OCSS), answered its 6 millionth call today. The call center answered more than a million child support calls this year alone.

Customer calls to CARE are routed first through an Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The IVR answers approximately two-thirds of incoming calls. The remaining callers are routed to customer service representatives (CSR) in CARE, available to answer calls Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and the first days after holidays are the busiest days.

Child support customers may reach CARE by calling 1-800-522-2922.

OCSS opened CARE in 2001 to give better overall service to its customers. Before CARE was established, custodial persons and non-custodial parents were calling the district offices to get answers to routine questions about child support services. Establishing CARE to handle routine questions has freed case workers to handle more complex child support issues. CARE is able to answer 93% of child support calls without needing to involve a caseworker.

“Providing quick, accurate information is our goal”, states Barbara Millikan, CARE Contract Monitor and Liaison for OCSS.

CARE began answering calls for the El Reno Child Support Office on March 6, 2001. CARE was rolled out statewide for all district offices in January 2003. It is operated under a contract between OKDHS and the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Public Management.

When fully staffed, CARE has about 75 CSRs handling incoming calls. CARE is hiring additional staff to further reduce call wait times. More information on the CSR (Staff Assistant II) positions can be found at http://www.oucpm.org/jobs/ (Link opens in new window).

Oklahoma Child Support Services is a division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. To promote healthy families, OCSS establishes, monitors and enforces reliable support while encouraging self-sufficiency and strengthening relationships. The division is responsible for more than 201,000 active child support cases, collecting $317 million last year on behalf of children and families.

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